


countdowns

by wordcatchers



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 05:43:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9058174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordcatchers/pseuds/wordcatchers
Summary: they meet haphazardly on the bus into work one morning, and he doesn't think he'll see her again. but they do, and she's forward as ever, and charming in a way he can't get off his mind. again and again they meet, on purpose later on, winding up at the spirits' lantern festival a year later. a year changes a lot. let's count it down.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [samurithecat](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=samurithecat).



> **warning for:** emetophobia. not graphic, but still there for a small section.
> 
> this is a makorra holiday gift / secret santa fic for samurithecat on tumblr. it's a take on a modern day au of the two of them, with a peripheral soulmates theme bookending the fic. i may or may not turn this into a series, as i didn't cover everything within this one gift fic. we'll just have to see, though.
> 
> hope you enjoy! :)

_You remind me of a day's opportunities that I let pass.  
Let it come around again, and we'll be different._

 

_9:04am. November 30, year 1._

 

The bus was late by four minutes, nearly five. He’d slumped down on the bench, pulling his scarf up to cover his mouth and the tip of his nose. His golden-orange eyes flicked side-to-side, huffing at the schedule going all wrong. He was going to be late to his first-round interview, and that… that was not good.

When the bus did arrive, it didn’t have any heat. He’d give anything to be able to warm himself up in this shithole piece of public transportation. Though, if he had to pick one magical power, it might lean more towards cleaning the bus up so it didn’t smell so rank. At least then he’d only be shivering, instead of shivering _and_ kind of feeling bile rise up his throat. Maybe someone had thrown up on an earlier round, leaving behind this…

— _SHIT._

The bus careened to a stop, throwing him forward into another passenger hanging onto a pole for dear life. He grimaced, rubbing at where his head had unintentionally rammed into their hip.

“M’sorry,” he muttered, backing up into his own seat again. _What the fuck had just happened?_

He didn’t have to wait to find out. Hearing the bus’s door slide open with a low creak, Mako leaned forward, one eye shut, the other squinting through the residual pain. 

A woman. She looked ready to rip someone’s head off, but the driver looked at her just like any other passenger. (Except maybe with an added amount of disdain.) She dug around in her pants' pockets, pulled out her transit card, and slid it through before mumbling something to the driver. If he hadn’t imagined it, it looked like a hint of remorse had flashed over her features before she started stalking down the aisle for a seat.

It was probably the best of times to pull out his phone and plug his earbuds in, try to forget all this misfortune so early in the day already. He reflexively chewed a little on his lower lip as he turned on his hip, reaching inside his side satchel pocket for the wires. But without realizing it, he’d stuck his leg out into the aisle as well, at the worst of times, and caused the new woman to trip over him. She caught herself, but still.

_Still._

Mako blanched, turning around, wires hanging around two of his fingers. His eyes looked up at her, her sharp blue ones glaring down at him, drowning out every thought of his own, turning them to mush. 

“What’re you looking at?” she whipped, her voice like a sharp sting. He didn’t let it show, though; at her biting tone, his face settled into a glower. Not saying anything in return, Mako turned back to his earbuds, sliding them into his phone’s socket, then placed them in his ears.

For the rest of the ride, he wished he could say he’d taken a quick rejuvenating nap. That he _hadn’t_ , five minutes later, found himself unable to keep his eyes shut, safely off the woman who’d obviously been the one to nearly make the bus crash. What _had_ she be doing to throw the driver off so much? This was Republic City, so it wasn’t like the driver wasn’t prepared, or supposed to be prepared, for almost literally _anything_.

And there was… He glanced over at her, then back down at his playlist. There was something about her that made him prickle, and not in any kind of uneasy way anymore. Or, perhaps, uneasy wasn’t the best word for it. He still felt uneasy, but the “every so often my heart's kinda skipping” type. He huffed, shuffling through the songs, sneaking glances every couple of minutes until his stop came.

As the driver announced the stop, one thought ran through his mind:

_Fuck. The interview._

He should have been studying over his notes instead of doing what he’d been doing.

Mako gulped, not sparing the woman another look. Getting this job was more important. He’d probably… Probably never see her again.

…

He looked back at her.

She was texting someone.

She didn’t see him.

Something about it felt… regrettable.

_You have an interview, idiot._

 

—————

 

_5:46pm. December 6._

 

Around a week later, he got on the same route, except this time he was coming back home to the apartment after his first shift as a beat cop. Bolin wanted his favorite dumplings, so he needed to stop at the food truck near their apartment complex as well. 

His card swiped, Mako turned, scanning the seats as he walked down the aisle. People reading physical copies of the Republic City Times, that was refreshing. The bus was practically full; he had to cast another look around to find an open seat. When he did, it was next to… _her_.

Heart momentarily on the fritz but face set like stone, he swallowed hard and closed the distance between them, sitting down beside her without a word. Perhaps she wouldn’t look up from her phone as she tapped away on it, much like last time.

…Still felt like he should say sorry, though. But would she even remember?

_This is so stupid_. _You’re being stupid, Mako._

He was _never_ stupid like this, but there was… There was something about her. But he wasn't going to instigate an unwanted conversation.

He crossed his arms against his chest and leaned back in the seat, eyes roaming over the advertisements placed in the curved nook above the seats across from them. Fairy lights had been put up over the last week as well, marking the winter holidays just around the corner. He and Bo didn’t celebrate any of them religiously, but gift-giving, fairy lights, lantern festivals lit in thankfulness, and great food were the least he could share with his little brother.

His phone buzzed then, drawing his eyes away from lifelessly boring into the adverts. 

 

 

 

> **Bo**
> 
> —DUDE! I met someone today :D

 

That warranted a slight eyebrow raise. _Slight._

 

 

 

> **Mako**
> 
> —And?

    

 

 

> **Bo**
> 
> —Maaaakoooo, she’s beautiful & I don’t know what 2 do! 
> 
> —Pls help me brooo 

 

_Oh for god’s sake._ He'd have to slap Bo once they both got home.

 

 

 

> **Mako**
> 
> —Has she made any moves?

 

 

 

> **Bo**
> 
> —…
> 
> —Yea, actually.
> 
> —we’re going on a… date, I think?

   

 

 

> **Mako**
> 
> —A DATE??? 

 

Eyes wide, Mako pinched the bridge of his nose. “What the fuck…”

Someone knocked against his right side. He glanced over, seeing the woman again. She had her eyes narrowed at him, surveying, thinking. Mako sighed.

“That wasn’t… directed at you. My little brother…”

Thumb underneath her lip, she continued to stare at him until — ah, the moment of realization. Sticking a finger out at him, she exclaimed, “You’re _that_ guy!” 

“Mmm, yeah,” he said, a corner of his lips turned upward awkwardly. He released the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding in, stretched his arms out into the aisle of the bus, then turned back to look at her.

“I… I guess you remember, then? No, you definitely do, sorry that was stupid.” He heaved a sigh, why was he acting like his brother all the sudden? “I just wanted to say, sorry for tripping you up a week ago. Shoulda…” Mako scratched at his brow, “shoulda said it back then. Sorry.”

The woman cracked a grin at him. “Heh, if it took you that long to piece together that type of apology, maybe you _needed_ all that time.”

“Hey!” he said, forefinger up between them, working on a retort… that never came to him. Faltering, he lowered his finger and hand, placing it back on his knee. “Shit, you’re right.”

She laughed, not even bothering to cover her mouth. “I’m Korra by the way,” she said, reaching a hand out. He looked down, then shook it with his own.

“I’m Mako.”

 

—————

 

_6:11pm. December 6._

  

 

 

> **Mako  
>  ** **  
> ** —Sorry for just answering, Bo.
> 
> —…I met someone today, too.
> 
> —She says she knows your date.

 

—————

 

_9:15am. December 7._

 

“You know… I never did ask you about what happened the first time we met. Before you got on the bus, I mean.”

Korra made a small noncommittal noise, her head resting back on her arms as they laid against the cold, fogged-over windows of the bus. Both of them were headed to work.

One of her eyes popped open. “Oh, you mean when I nearly got run over?”

“What?!”

“Eh,” she shut her eye again, shrugged. “I got into an argument with my roommate, Asami, and went for a spontaneous run. Just wound up forgetting where my stop was until I was already in the middle of the road. _Apparently_ , the driver had almost missed my stop, too. Which is why he was going too fast, almost ran into me. Thankfully, avoided. Still shitty, though.”

“So that’s why you were so pissed.”

She laughed. “Yeah, that and the argument. Not a great start to a day.”

His "bad start" to that same day was nothing compared to hers. The conversation came to a lull for the rest of the ride, at least until he had to get off near the station. When he got to his feet, though, Korra grabbed his hand, tapping on his phone screen.

“Let me put my number in, Mako.”

A part of him felt like he should ask why, but shoved that thought down.

“Mm? Sure.”

While she tapped the number in, she said, “Asami said I should get to know more people. And not _her_ people from her upper class circle, though they’re all right. Anyway, you seem okay. So,” she handed his phone back to him, “Text me, yeah? Or I will sometime later tonight.”

As he stepped off the bus, he couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he glanced down at Korra’s number once more.

 

—————

 

_10:53pm. December 31._

 

“I can’t believe I agreed to this,” he said, words slightly slurred. Mako pivoted on his barstool, jabbing a lazy finger in Bolin’s direction. “This is… this is s’all _your_ fault, Bo.”

Bolin broke away from Opal’s face, grabbing Mako’s finger and lowering it back to his brother’s thigh. Patting it, he smiled goofily at Mako and said, “Y’know, I think _you_ were the one so intent on beating me at shots once Korra said she’d…. hm, what was it? Never see you again in the New Year if you didn’t?”

Mako hiccuped and clapped a hand over his mouth, brow furrowed, embarrassed. He kept telling himself that his cheeks were not flushed, and if they were, it was just the shots affecting him. Just the shots. That was it.

“I’ve…” He stumbled off the barstool off the kitchenette, gesturing towards the balcony across the way, where Korra and her friend Asami were talking. “I’ve gotta go… tell her… she’s gotta keep her promise.” Feeling bile rise in his throat, he stopped for a moment, then once it subsided, he started walking, murmuring, “And maybe throw up on her.”

“Yeah, that’ll be _romantic_!”

Oh, apparently Opal had heard him.

 

—————

 

_10:59pm. December 31._

 

Asami had wanted to smoke, so that’s why they were out here. She’d been trying to get her best friend to stop for months now, but no go so far. “Y’know you’re just slowly committing suicide, right?” hadn’t worked, for spirits sake. Maybe someday she’d realize.

Someday… 

_—S M A C K._

_…_ but not tonight, and not when she now had a slender idiot of a man smacking a hand at the glass door, the other trying to figure out how to open it.

Asami was laughing. Korra dragged her fingernails down her face, then slid the door open for him. She was expecting him to stumble, but wasn’t able to totally compensate for him if it wasn't for Asami’s quick hand steadying her.

“Someone’s drunk,” Asami said, tone soft, eyelids lowered.

Mako pinched his nose, glaring up at her from between Korra’s arms.

“I’m _fine._ ”

A look. Judging, perceptive. Asami was great at those.

He wobbled a bit as he tried to stand up straighter. “Okay, _fine_. I’m not fine. I’m drunk. But,” and he turned to her then, gripping at her bicep, “Korra? I beat Bo. Keep your promise?” His eyes were suddenly shimmering — was he about to _cry_ or something? Korra was trying to reconcile this… _new_ drunk Mako with the guy she’d met on the bus a few weeks ago.

It didn’t feel _impossible_ , but spirits, this guy was… Something.

This was kind of embarrassing.

Oh, hell.

She grabbed him around the waistline and pulled him close.

“I was _kidding_ , Mako,” she said softly against his ear.

He tilted his head back from the embrace, eyebrow cocked. “I’m… Shit, I’m an idiot.”

Bringing their foreheads against each other, she smiled, “Yeah, but not enough of one to get alcohol poisoning. You can handle your shit, can’t you?”

“Aw, he’s blushing,” Asami remarked, tapping ash from her cigarette.

That only made him blush harder.

Korra _liked_ this guy.

 

—————

 

_11:17am. January 1, year 2._

 

The sound of retching over the toilet; who could ask for a better start to the New Year? Korra felt half-tempted to stick her earbuds in and drown it out with some meditative instrumentals as per Tenzin’s doing, but the nagging in the back of her head was impervious to distractions like that.

_You’ve always held Asami’s hair back when she’s sick._

_—But Mako doesn’t have long hair._

_You also always give Asami moral support._

_—He’ll get over it. He might want to be alone._

_“Might” is not a definite word. Go check on him._

“Fuck, all right.”

She set her phone aside, turning around to set her legs off the bed, stretching in all directions before planting her feet on the rug. Barefooted, Korra padded into the bathroom down the hallway, pinching her nostrils at the smell. She always got used to it once in here for a minute or two, but coming right up on it was never great.

Mako was using toilet paper to wipe at his mouth, sending up a lazy peace sign to her.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, making her way over to sit on the edge of the tub. He shrugged, murmured something incoherent, then heaved again. Once he got control and his breath back, he turned his head to her.

“I come in peace and I’m sorry, that’s what. Bolin taught it to me, means I’ll clean up after, you can peace out, et cetera.”

Korra nestled her chin in her hands, tilted her head faux cutely, a closed-lips smile on her face. “Oh, _really? Et cetera?_ Where’d you go to university?” Then she lightly slapped the back of his head, “City boy, you’re a damn contradiction. I _know_ you’re smart with the way you talk sometimes, but other times you act dumber than Bolin. No offense to him, of course.”

After he retched and wiped his mouth once more, he flushed it all down, getting up to his feet. She watched as he clenched his jaw, holding a hand to his head.

“You really shouldn’t have done that last night. I wasn't going to choose not to ever talk to you again just because of a silly shots game.”

He groaned in reply.

“Look,” Korra said, standing up as well. She filled up a paper cup with mouthwash, forced him to swish and spit, then took him by an arm. “You’re gonna stay here for a few more hours, get better, then you can catch the bus home.”

“Bu—”

She tightened her grip on his arm. “ _No._ ”

 

—————

 

_8:03pm. January 1._

  

 

 

> **Mako**
> 
> —Hey, sorry again for messing up your morning.

 

 

 

> **Korra**
> 
> —It’s cool, I’ve dealt with it before
> 
> —with Asami, I mean

 

He pursed his lips, then nibbled on the bottom one a bit. Not out of nerves, not at all. Nope. His fingers hovered over the touchscreen for a few more seconds than needed.

 

 

 

> **Mako**
> 
> —Still doesn’t make it right
> 
> —…let me, make it up to you?

  

 

 

> **Korra**
> 
> —What’s that, city boy?
> 
> —Is that…
> 
> —an offer to take me _out?_ ;)

  

 

 

> **Mako**
> 
> —!!
> 
> —If you don’t want to

 

 

 

> **Korra**
> 
> —LOL no I _want_ to
> 
> —When?

 

Mako tapped over to his work schedule calendar on the phone, noting the shifts he was working over the next week. Better to do this sooner rather than later. Yeah…. _yeah_. He breathed in, then out. A few more cycles through — breath in, breath out — he replied.

  

 

 

> **Mako**
> 
> —How about four days from now?
> 
> —You available that night?

 

The three dots appeared again and again, teasing him, then:

 

 

 

> **Korra**
> 
> —Yeah, 7:30 work?

  

 

 

> **Mako**
> 
> —It does
> 
> —I’ll come by your place?

 

She sent back a thumbs up and smiley emoji, and that was it. The end. For now.

His heart was still skipping.

When had he ever felt like this before?

 

—————

 

_10:40pm. January 5._

 

Neither of them drank that night. They’d agreed on that condition beforehand. Not that either of them explicitly said, “I want to be completely cognizant of this entire night for you,” but that was the silent underlying premise.

After noodles and spiced teas — because neither of them were rich in yuans or pretense — they wound up sitting, then laying beside a stream extending out of Republic City Park’s lake. 

Korra was pointing out parts of constellations she’d also seen in her home nation, a nearly always frozen over tundra; something before meeting her, he’d always called a frozen wasteland, filled to the brim with unneeded rituals and ancient traditions.

(He’d gotten wrestled to the ground for saying that. Then lectured. Which Korra kept reminding him, she _didn’t even like doing._ The lecturing part, that is.)

She complained some about how much harder it was to make out any constellations in this city compared to back home, but how she’d come here for a fresh start, new opportunities, like her job as a refugee services case manager. 

“How’d you get into it?” he asked, rubbing at his left eye.

“I… Well, I wanted to help people. And I’m shit at science, so being a doctor was out of the question. Plus, even though college was rough and it took me a while to be able to, actually, y’know, _do_ the job well…” she laughed a little, “I got pretty good at it, once I got better at listening to people and learning how to know how I can help them best.”

Mako smiled. “Mm, yeah, you seem like… you’d be perfect for that.” 

He heard, and slightly felt, her turn over onto her side. He definitely felt her eyes on him. 

“Hey… Mako.”

“Mm?”

“Turn around.”

He couldn’t think of a reason not to. When he did, he got a face full of snowflower whisps*. Coughing, and laughing some, he slapped her on the arm and grabbed the stem from her.

“What was _that_ for?”

She smirked, “To see your reaction. And since we can’t have a snowball fight like I wanted. What’s _up_ with this city’s lack of snow right now?”

“Korra, this isn’t the south pole.”

“I know… But, hey, next time it snows, let’s get everyone together and have a snowball fight. Maybe try and build a shitty half-formed igloo, too.”

A pause, then, “I’d like that, Korra. I know Bo and Opal will, too.”

“And Asami,” Korra replied.

“Let’s do it.”

 

—————

 

_11:34pm. December 30, year 2._

 

They’d been together now for nearly a year. Known each other for a bit over one. They held hands as they walked over to their group’s bunch of blankets laid out on the snow-tipped grass. Tonight was something they’d missed last year due to work and other obligations, and Bolin had been so down because of it. This year, though, he was beaming from ear to ear.

“Hey guys — _guys!_ ” his little brother yelled, waving at them.

Mako raised his sky lantern up. “We’re coming!”

The festival was something that most of the city came out to, or at least as many that could fit in Republic City Park grounds. Some people even got on small wooden boats in the lake, something Mako had thought about doing, but not tonight. Maybe... he shot a glance over at Korra, yeah, maybe on New Year's Day. Or eve. Tonight was about celebrating the spirits' many blessings over them, from a wider scope such as the tides of seasons and weather, to the smaller scopes of their own individual lives.

At a bit before Midnight, they'd light up their paper lanterns from inside and release them to float up into the sky. For now, they needed to write their thanks down and store them in a little nook inside their lanterns. Bolin was scribbling several things, trying to squeeze them all in under the smallest, most unintelligible handwriting Mako had ever seen from him.

“Bro,” he said, “You don’t have to describe every little good thing that’s happened for you this year.” 

“But Mako, so much has happened and I wanna thank the spirits for it!”

“Oh, _Bolin_ , babe,” Opal said wrapping an arm around her boyfriend, “You’ll just annoy the spirits with all that detail. They _know,_ they just like to see something like — hey, Asami, show him your bullet point list, will you?”

Asami laughed and held it up. Bullet point, check next to it, one after other, but not _too_ much.

Bolin sobered at how organized Asami’s list was. _“Oh.”_

“It doesn’t mean you can’t put feeling into it, though — just, conversational, they’ll like that. It's the thought that counts.”

“You think?” he asked, brightening up some.

Opal giggled. “Well, they haven’t come back against me yet for being like that.”

As Bolin picked up a fresh piece of paper and started over, Mako turned towards Korra. She was being suspiciously quieter than usual. A lot quieter. But she was busy writing on her own paper, scratching characters on it with a pencil, tongue stuck out from between her lips. Mako looked back at his own blank piece, pen twirling between his fingers.

Flashes of memories went through his mind: holding his job down, getting promoted, getting his own flat, visiting his mother’s ancestral home nation an ocean away with Bolin, all interspersed with memories involving Korra, and all his other friends.

But Korra wasn’t just a friend. They _were_ friends, but spirits, she was first on his list of thanks to them. _Thank you so much for bringing Korra into my life._ He’d been dragging himself up on his feet before she came along, clawing and scraping, and then she turned his world upside down. She couldn’t talk much about her work, and neither could he in certain terms, but they’d met up bi-weekly, then weekly on the weekends, and soon enough the café they frequented had given them gift card out of the blue.

_“Ah, how about we meet up at my place next? If you, y’know, want,”_ he’d said then.

Dozens of interactions later, another two “formal” dates (not that anything they did was ever _really_ formal), and they were together. It wasn’t always bliss, but he’d have it no other way. She’d pushed him on his exams, practical and written, and he brought books to her from every nation she received refugees (and now sometimes regular migrants as well) from. 

He folded his paper up, sticking it into the nook of his paper lantern. It was now 11:50; they’d be releasing them soon.

Feeling Korra’s hand on top of his, he turned his around, holding hers in it. He squeezed it, moving closer to her until their thighs, their sides touched, bringing their joined hands to sit on his lap. Hundreds, thousands of others were around them, but right now, Mako only had room for Korra in his sight. 

Two minutes. He turned to her, pulling her hair back a bit, moving to whisper in her ear. “Back to my place tonight after?” Breathing out a soft laugh, Korra raised a hand to his cheek.

“Yeah,” she said, then again in her native southern tongue. “Mako, it’s soon.”

One minute.

He took three seconds of both their time, kissing her on the cheek.

He felt her shiver, a mixture of the cold and his touch that he’d come to recognize by now.

“Hey, we should light these,” she whispered.

“Mm, yeah.”

Tearing himself from her, he struck a match, lighting his.

At the lights bursting in the sky, everyone set their lanterns free. Thousands floated up, some a bit later than others, but it’s all part of the festival; not one entity floating, but several, hundreds, all individual expressions of gratefulness, thanks. That was how Republic City did it. The ember glow from all the sky lanterns lit the park up for several minutes, leaving them all with plenty of light to disperse, as a group until the exit, and then separately.

Mako wrapped an arm around Korra, bringing her close as they fell into step together, catching a bus back to his new place. He and Bolin still got together plenty, but both with girlfriends now, they knew it was time to move into their own flats.

“You tired?” he asked as she sat next to him, resting her head on his shoulder.

Korra yawned in response, but raised a hand and ran it back through his hair.

“Us first, then bed.”

His eyes widened, _oh, all right._

The ride home was a dull roar to the thoughts coursing through his mind. Bumps weren’t the usual annoyance, nor were the conversations of others a distraction at all. He rubbed his thumb rhythmically over her hand, nudging her awake when they reached their stop.

“Let’s go.”

She woke up in the cold air of night, lampposts lighting their way back to his place. Once inside with the door shut and locked, he brought her flush against him, kissing her hard. She squeaked, the noise turning into a soft moan. He smiled into the kiss, only breaking apart to breathe again, and follow her lead to the bedroom.

 

_ It'll all work out this time around, you and I,  
and until it ends, let me hold you for the countdown. _

**Author's Note:**

> *these would be akin to our own dandelions. The flowers you can blow into other people's face for fun, or just blow them to the wind. Except in this story these flowers would only grow in fall and winter, and would be thicker + larger.


End file.
